The practices of integrating manufacturing execution system and six sigma methodology

Currently, manufacturing execution systems (MES) are widely used in the aerospace, automotive, semiconductor, optoelectronic, pharmaceutical and petrochemical industries, etc. MES can link with automation equipment to record relevant information automatically and control the quality of work-in-process (WIP), statistics analysis, production scheduling and maintenance of equipment and instruments, etc. In recent years the manufacturing industry has successfully applied six sigma projects. However, some of the projects failed due to insufficient data and human errors. This paper aims to discuss the define-measure-analyse-improve-control (DMAIC) phases of integrating MES and six sigma, detailing phases to improve the above situation and to avoid the time and cost for sourcing data. It will improve the process performance and capability, cycle time, rolled throughout yield and operating costs significantly, which in turn improve the quality of implementing six sigma quickly and precisely.